Sunday lifting thread.

I haven’t done one of these for a while, so time to report on all the gainz or lack thereof. There hasn’t been a lifting thread because there hasn’t been much lifting due to moving house and initial renovation efforts. We moved house on a Tuesday and I went to the gym the day before, but I quickly realised that the gym was going to be off the table while the nightmare of shifting was ongoing.

This week I returned in a state of morbid trepidation. At my age, (46), you deal with the fact that the gainz are extremely fleeting. You lose it much much faster than you gain it. I was already having trouble with the squat before I took the moving break and I had decided to deload 10kg. So I went from 87.5kg back down to 77.5kg. When I came back to the gym I hit 80kg and it was a struggle. A big struggle.

I had to deload deadlifts as well as the 130kg barrier had proved to be a step too far at this point in time. 120kg in comparison was a total breeze, so no issues there.

The bench press was my biggest disappointment as I had broken through the magical barrier of 70kg just before taking a break, which is my own body weight. So I was all set for 72.5kg but all I managed to do was 5kg lighter. I attempted 70kg again on Wednesday but only managed to complete 4 of each rep.

There was one big surprise, however – the shoulder press. The 47.5kg barrier had been eluding me for a very long time. I had deload a few times in an attempt to push past it but had never succeeded. Back in the gym this week and against my better judgement I loaded up 47.5kg just to see how it would go.

I smashed it easily. For the first time I’m going to attempt 50kg tomorrow. Very strange how things work out.

Work is very full on for me and my commute home can be a bitch so going to the gym is a mental challenge. But I have to keep doing it. There is no way that I am going back to being Mr Weak as Piss.

On the gym note I am trying to find a gym in the South Amsterdam area. A decent lifting gym with actual squat racks, not just fucking Smith machines. If anyone has any suggestions I’d appreciate it. There is a brilliant gym in Leiden that has 8 squat racks and 6 deadlift platforms but it’s just not good for the home commute. The idea is to go to a gym close to work so that by the time I finish lifting the iron the traffic has got back to a reasonable level.